Hills Like White Elephants - Essay

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“Hills like White Elephants” By Ernest Hemmingway “Hills like White Elephants” is about an American man and a girl named Jig who are traveling throughout Spain together. The couple is in Barcelona outside of a train station, sitting at a table at a bar. While they are waiting for the next train to arrive, they order drinks and discuss whether or not Jig should have an operation. At first Jig makes small talk with the American when he brings up the operation. The American is talking about abortion and he is trying to convince Jig that an abortion is perfectly natural, however Jig feels unsure about getting an abortion. The couple has a difficult time communicating about this subject and as tension levels grow, Jig says that she feels fine and that everything is fine, leaving the reader to believe that she is going to go through with the operation. The story is told from a moral perspective, which can be seen from the way the landscape is worked into the dialogue and the narration. The language used at the beginning of the story is simple and straightforward, telling the reader that the place is the Valley of Ebro in Spain, and at a train station. The impression presented is that the characters are at a train station in the middle of a dry barren place, under the sun, with no shade or trees, which gives the reader the idea of the lack of life. The characters are alone in the warm shadow of the building, separated from the world by a curtain, yet still in nature, where life is. The use of a train station as the location, where the story takes place is probably because of the confusing conversation that dominates the conflict in the story. The conversation between the man and woman is much like the train tracks, running parallel, yet never meeting. The man and woman are talking, but neither is hearing what is being said. The train station also represents the

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